Social Psychology and Dysfunctional Behavior: Origins, Diagnosis, and Treatment

264 Pages·1986·5.141 MB·English

by  Mark R. Leary, Rowland S. Miller (auth.)

SSSP
Springer
Series in
Social
Psychology
SSSP
Mark R. Leary
Rowland S. Miller
Social Psychology
and Dysfunctional
Behavior
Origins, Diagnosis,
and Treatment
Springer-Verlag New York Berlin Heidelberg
London Paris Tokyo
Mark R. Leary Rowland S. Miller
Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
Wake Forest University Sam Houston State University
Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109 Huntsville, Texas 77341
U.S.A. U.S.A.
With 2 Figures
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Leary, Mark R.
Social psychology and dysfunctional behavior.
(Springer series in social psychology)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Social psychiatry. 2. Interpersonal relations.
3. Mental illness-Social aspects. 4. Social psychology.
I. Miller, Rowland S. II. Title. III. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Behavior. 2. Counseling. 3. Interpersonal
Relations. 4. Psychology, Clinical. 5. Psychology,
Social. WM 105 L438s1
RC465.L38 1986 616.89 86-6536
© 1986 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1986
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form without
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Typset by TC Systems, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN-13:978-1-4613-9569-0 e-ISBN-13 :978-1-4613-9567-6
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4613-9567-6
To Wendy and Kevin, Gale and Christopher
Preface
A colleague recently recounted a conversation she had had with a group of
graduate students. For reasons that she cannot recall, the discussion had
turned to the topic of "old-fashioned" ideas in psychology-perspectives
and beliefs that had once enjoyed widespread support but that are now
regarded as quaint curiosities. The students racked their brains to outdo one
another with their knowledge ofthe historical trivia of psychology: Le Bon's
fascination with the "group mind," Mesmer's theory of animal magnetism,
the short-lived popularity of "moral therapy," Descartes' belief that erec
tions are maintained by air from the lungs, and so on.
When it came his tum to contribute to the discussion, one student brought
up an enigmatic journal he had seen in the library stacks: the Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology. He thought that the inclusion of abnormal
and social psychology within the covers of a single journal seemed an odd
combination, and he wondered aloud what sort of historical quirk had led
psychologists of an earlier generation to regard these two fields as somehow
related. Our colleague then asked her students if they had any ideas about
how such an odd combination had found its way into a single journal.
One student suggested that the decision to stick abnormal and social psy
chology together must have been a financial one; perhaps the American
Psychological Association did not have enough money to support a journal
in both fields, and so they had thrown the two together. Another student
thought that the enigma was more imagined than real-that "social psychol
ogy" must have had different connotations at one time than it does today.
Although neither our colleague nor her students knew the full story behind
the Journal ofA bnormal and Social Psychology (a topic we discuss in chap
ter 1), this anecdote makes an important point. Although many influential
figures in psychology (such as Morton Prince and Gordon Allport) once
viewed the study of interpersonal processes and the study of psychological
difficulties as intimately related, social psychology and abnormal-clinical
counseling psychology historically have had little to do with one another.
viii Preface
Indeed, the schism has been so great that contemporary students may have
difficulty imagining how the fields might be related at all.
However, a movement is under way that is restimulating interest in the
role of social psychological processes in the development, diagnosis, and
treatment of dysfunctional behavior. Researchers and practitioners alike are
devoting increasing attention to the interpersonal determinants of emotional
and behavioral problems. In doing so, they are finding not only that many
psychological problems arise from people's relationships with others, but
that the diagnosis and treatment of such problems necessarily involve an
interpersonal relationship between a counselor and a client. As a result of
this realization, social psychology, with its focus on interpersonal behavior,
is being increasingly regarded as relevant to the concerns of clinical and
counseling psychologists.
Excited by this recent development, we have set out in this volume to
overview areas of inquiry in which theory and research in social psychology
elucidate processes involved in behavioral and emotional problems. Our
task was more formidable than it first appeared. Recent years have seen an
explosion of interest in the interface between social and clinical-counseling
abnormal psychology, and we were forced to choose at every juncture
among topics for inclusion. Thus, we thought it important to state up front
the criteria (or, if you will, the biases) that guided our writing.
First, this book has a decidedly social psychological orientation. Although
every page deals with phenomena of interest to clinical ~nd counseling psy
chologists (and counseling and psychotherapy research appears through
out), our emphasis is on how basic interpersonal processes are involved in
the genesis, diagnosis, and remediation of psychological difficulties. Thus,
although we believe strongly that the literatures we review provide useful
perspectives for the practicing psychologist, we have not tried to write a
book on how to do counseling and psychotherapy. Nevertheless, trained
therapists will find much of value in the book and will be able to incorporate
the insights offered here into their own modes of dealing with troubled
individuals.
Our goal throughout is to show how central topics and perspectives in
social psychology can help us better understand and treat certain sorts of
psychological difficulties. We have sampled broadly from areas of interest in
social psychology, including attribution, social cognition, impression man
agement, relationships, the self, attitude change, expectancy effects, and
self-esteem, to name some ofthe more central. In many instances we discuss
work that has explicitly integrated social psychological perspectives into
studies of clinical phenomena, whereas in others we speculate about the
interpersonal aspects of psychological problems and their treatment on the
basis of basic research.
In several chapters, we provide a brief introduction to basic social psycho
logical constructs before delving into the implications of those constructs for
abnormal, clinical, and counseling psychology. We ask those readers who
Preface ix
are well versed in social psychology to bear with us during these brief intro
ductions; we thought it would be helpful to readers who are less familiar with
work in social psychology if we provided a bit of background on such topics.
We feel strongly that social psychology has much to offer to our under
standing and treatment of dysfunctional behavior, and that, in turn, counsel
ing and clinical psychology can shine considerable light on the interpersonal
processes that interest social psychologists. The potential for dialogue
among these areas is extensive but has barely been tapped, and we hope that
this volume will serve as a further impetus to cross-fertilization among these
fields.
We would like to express our deepest thanks to Jane Reade, Teresa Hill,
and Jodi Steiner for typing the reference list, to Robin Kowalski for her work
on the author index, to Jim Maddux for extraordinarily helpful comments on
an earlier draft of the manuscript, and to the staff at Springer-Verlag for their
unflagging encouragement and support.
Winston-Salem, North Carolina Mark R. Leary
Huntsville, Texas Rowland S. Miller
Contents
Preface ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Why So Long? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Emerging Interface .. . . . .. . .. . . . . . .. .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. 7
Current Topics at the Interface ............................. 8
Part 1. Interpersonal Origins of Dysfunctional Behavior
2. Attributional Processes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Maladaptive Attributions. . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . .. .. . . .. .. . . .. 16
Adaptive Attributions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Conclusions .............................................. 32
3. Attributions, Perceived Control, and Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Learned Helplessness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Therapeutic Implications of Learned Helplessness Theory . . . . . 45
Egotism as an Alternative Explanation of Helplessness. . . . . . . . 45
Reactance as a Reaction to Loss of Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Individual Differences in Response to Loss of Control. . . . . . . . . 47
Negative Reactions to Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Conclusions .............................................. 49
4. Self·Processes and Behavioral Problems. .. . .. .. ... . .. ... . .. . . 51
Self-Esteem Maintenance. . . .. . . .. . . .. .. . .. . .. .. . .. . .. . . .. . 52
Self-Awareness. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . .. .. . ... .. . . .. .. . . .. 59
Conclusions .............................................. 64
xii Contents
s.
Self-Presentational Aspects of Maladaptive Behavior... .... .... 65
An Introduction to Self-Presentation... . . .... .... .. . ... .... . . 65
Impression Management and Mental Illness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Self-Presentations of Physical Illness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Aggression and Criminality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Theoretical Integrations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Conclusions .............................................. 81
6. Anxiety and Inhibition in Interpersonal Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Theories of Social Anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Self-Presentation Theory. . . ..... . ..... . .... .... .. . ... . . .... 87
Inhibited and Avoidant Behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Implications for Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Conclusions .............................................. 95
7. Troubled Relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Personal Dysfunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Interactive Dysfunctions. . . . . .... . . .... . . .... ... ... .... .... 103
Relationship Dysfunctions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 0
Conclusions .............................................. 116
Part D. Interpersonal Processes in the Diagnosis and Treatment of
Psychological Problems
8. Clinical Inference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Statistical Versus Intuitive Decision Making... . ... . .. . ... .... 122
The Limits of Introspection ................................ 124
Personalistic Biases in Judgment... . . .... . . ... . .... .. . ... .. . 126
The Constraints of Preconceptions. ..... . .... . ... .... ... . ... 128
Belief Perseverance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
The Confirmatory Bias. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Illusory Correlations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Overconfidence ........................................... 139
The Behavioral Confirmation of Erroneous Inferences. .... . . .. 143
Improving Clinical Inference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Conclusions· .............................................. 146
9. The Social Influence Model in Counseling and Psychotherapy. . . 147
Social Psychological Foundations. ... . . . .. . . .... . ... .... . . .. 148
Counselor Characteristics. .. . . . ... .. . . .. . . .... . . .. . . .. . . ... 149
Message Characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Client Characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Contents xiii
Critique of the Social Influence Model of Counseling. . . . . . . . . . 159
Theoretical Considerations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Conclusions .............................................. 163
10. Behavioral Compliance and Psychological Change. ... ... . .. . . . 165
Attitude-Discrepant Behavior and Psychological Change. .. . . .. 165
Clinical Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. .. . .. . .. . .. . . .. . . 169
Conclusions .............................................. 177
11. Expectancies and Behavior Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Therapist Expectancies. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . .. . . .. . . .. 180
Client Expectations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .. .. .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . . 187
Common Features of Strategies of Behavior Change. .. . .. . . .. 193
Conclusions .............................................. 194
12. Areas and Issues. . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. . . .. .. . .. . .. .. . . . . . . . . .. . . 195
Other Topics ofInterest..... ............................... 195
Social Psychologists as Therapists? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
To the Future. . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . .. . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . .. . . 200
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Author Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Subject Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259